Almost every cartoon series of the 80’s and 90’s usually followed a certain number of similar tropes and plot devices for some episodes of the show. Some are quite entertaining, and it’s always great to see them used. And then there’s the ones done to death so badly that even a show like ReBoot has a hard time of keeping them fresh. And this is the perfect example of that. It’s time to get into “The Tiff”
We open at Dot’s Diner as once again Dot is busy with all of her jobs. Bob and Enzo come in from circuit racing. Dot is peeved because it’s not on the schedule, which has now made her late for everything. Bob believes that things should be done on the fly, which sparks a problem with Dot, who has every single event in her life on schedule. The two begin to argue, before Bob leaves in a huff over being called Random. Enzo is bothered by the way the two are arguing like children, and tries to get the two to admit they were wrong. Dot completely ignores the mention of Bob’s name, and Bob believes that he has so much to do that he doesn’t even need the diner. But his boredom not long after says otherwise.
This is also the first episode that we are introduced to Mike the TV, bob’s talking television. This is a character who you either love for multiple wacky television references, or dislike because of how annoying he is. Interestingly enough for what is essentially a comic relief character (actually more entertaining that Cecil, Dot’s snooty French waiter), he will play a major role in a major event in the series later on. But for now, he’s quickly tossed out by Bob.
While Dot continues to be against the idea of calling Bob, a tear suddenly shows up in the diner. Enzo tries to tell Dot to call Bob, but with her stubbornness, she deals with the tear herself. Blowing half the diner up in the process. Enzo realizes that this can’t go on much longer, and he and other binomes goes to Phong for help. Thankfully they don’t have to play his game to get an answer for once.
Phong says that friendships can be best mended through tragedy or apology. Enzo decides that the best way to use this knowledge by staging phony kidnapping by Megabyte at Old Man Pearson’s data dump. Bob and Dot both arrive on the scene as Enzo is close to erasure, but continue to argue. Before Enzo can be erased, Frisket comes to his rescue instead. In other words, this plan was a bust. In fact it’s made worse as Dot punches Bob for his words. Plan B for Enzo is to send phony apology hologram cards by each other. The two meet in the park, and it seems things are going to finally work. But a game just happens to land in time, just as they realize that the cards weren’t sent by either of them.
This time it’s a jailbreak game called “Starship Alcatraz”, where the user is a convict trying to escape, as he sets the ship to self destruct and cuts the power. It’s up to Bob and Dot to stop him. And as you’d expect, both of them have to use their own methods to cooperate. Meaning that Bob has to be slow and think things through, and Dot has to take immediate action with the User. They deal with the many creatures in the prison, which are giant spiders and weird blob creatures.
They eventually cooperate as Bob gets the power back up and Dot chases after the User. With Bob at the controls, he manages to slow the user down as Dot deals with more enemies. Dot eventually gets the access card from the user, and jumps down in time to place the card in time to win the game. And so the episode ends with the two mending their arguments from earlier, but still arguing over who did the better job. And Enzo just gives up on the two.
“The Tiff” is an okay episode, but the problem is it does nothing particularly new with this sort of plot device. Plenty of episodes that do this go under the similar routes of:
Two friends argue, claiming to never need the other anymore
Another friend, most often the kid character, tries to mend the situation with no avail
A big situation soon where the two characters must work together leads to the problem being mended
And the episode ends with more arguing, but this time over who handled the situation better
What saves this from feeling extremely dull and formulaic is the latter half of the episode, and a fairly interesting game. While the user is the villain of the series, it’s weird that the user is a convict, and Bob and Dot are the ones who have to actually protect the starship. Though with games and other media celebrating anti-heroes more at that point, it isn’t the least bit shocking either.
Other than that, there were a couple funny moments, a definite focus on the relationship between Bob and Dot, and the game was once again interesting. For a filler episode that sticks to the same tired tropes, it wasn’t bad. But for this show so far, it’s undeniably the worst to this point. But hopefully the next episode will fare better as it’s a tale about a boy, his dog, and a virus.